Christmas Past

We found the perfect shirt for Marianne. Yes the world does revolve around moi! Plus she got another book to give her more ammunition for the gender wars. Carol has disappeared into the murky world of Columbo re-runs. Ben after getting a Tony Benett CD, a Godfather DVD and a new hat, has now become Frank Sinatra. Now I just have to get rid of this tree in the living room!

The Tri-Fecta of Worship.

In order to get the Christmas Spirit and since our church has cancelled all services till New Years Day, I have taken it upon myself to push the envelope and go to three services in other churches. The Friday night sabbath kick-off is "The Inn At Bethlehem" at the 7th Day Adventist Church. Sat. night, it's a Contemporary Christian Music Explosion at the "Rock of Asheville Church". This will be followed by a Christmas morning mass at "Our Lady of the Parkway" Catholic church.

Now we already went to the greatest Christmas Extravaganza ever produced, "Christmas on the Mountain" at the Biltmore Baptist Church. This blend of George Lucas and the PTL Club can't be described. The angels with their 12 foot long robes traveling on tracks 20 feet above the audience reminded me of Circus-Circus in Vegas. The show at our little Nazarene Church was great. I knew we were in the south because it's the first time in 20 years that when I ran around the outside of the church dressed as an apostle I wasn't running through snow in flip-flops.

Oh Rats!

About a month ago I started to hear something trying to to chew it's way through the floor under the dishwasher. Well, our crack property management team sent Pedro to check. He said he didn't see anything in the crawl space and that was that. Then the other day we found some chewed up carpet and a chewed up Christmas decoration. I thought we must have a mouse. So this morning while having breakfast at 6 am with Carol, out comes the varmint from behind the Christmas Tree. It was either a big mouse or a small rat. Now maybe the mice in North Carolina are a little big from eating biscuits. Funny thing though: the critter arrived the same night as Marianne. Well, now we are waiting for the exterminator. Being an old ratter from the Bronx I know how to get rid of these pesky fellows but since we just rent I'll leave it to the pro's. Seeing a rat in the morning will wake you up quicker than a double latte.

Our Micro Christmas Tree

We went all out this year and picked up this $15 beauty. Half off if you wait til a week before Christmas with the other cheap people. It's custom made for townhouses. Next year I'm going to look for one that's pre-lit and decorated. Yep, fit right in the back of the Element. They even cut the bottom and drilled and trimmed it.


Don't tell D-55 I got it at Lowe's. Yipes!

The Worst Ice-Storm Ever !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just to let everyone now we survived the worst ice storm since the one that left Canada in the dark for a month and spoiled all the beer. Actually I give it a 5 where we are. The brunt of the storm hit right below us in South Carolina. There are still people without power in about 1/3 of the area. We lost power and had to rely on our gas fire place and oil lamps. The power would go out for 4 hours and then come on for 30 minutes. Finally around 6 pm we got desperate and ventured out into this icy hell to drive the mile to our favorite Mexican Restaurant. It was touch an go for while; no cable, no internet, no DVD player. I went to work and did see some branches down and felt an icy patch under my wheels as I traversed an overpass. The streets were empty, as most people stayed home and gathered the family around the gas log and siped what they assumed to be their last drink of Evian. Our power came on about 7 pm that night so we were able to abort our plan to put the frozen food on the deck and go to bed with flashlight in hand. We were fortunate to still have our gas log and hot water. Reading by the oil lamp brought back memories of my early childhood when I lived on a farm in the Bronx.

The storm I guess was pretty bad in some areas. Some will be without power for weeks but I find comfort in it being described as the worst storm ever. The next day it was 46' F and sunny. There is a big cleanup from downed trees and power lines but it sure beats 51 inches of snow and the wind howling a gale in Garrett County. I expect G.W. to arrive any day and tour our ravaged region and start handing out money. After all the mall was closed for 3 hours; what could possibly be worse than that!

An Inspirational Poster for Jon

Ho Ho Ho

No this isn't Christmas at the Biltmore Mansion. It's the sum of all my Christmas decorations. The snow man and Santa didn't make the trip from Maryland.

We went to a Christmas Extravaganza at the 3000 seat Biltmore Baptist Church. It was a production worthy of any strip casino in Vegas. The cast of actors was at least 500, plus they had a huge orchestra and choir. They had angels and elves suspended on tracks swirling around the church. The show was about an hour's worth of contemporary Christmas music and drama. This was followed by an hour and a half depiction of all the gospels. This included every miracle, parable and story complete in the King James English with a southern accent. Caiaphas sounded like Boss Hog. It went from complete Andy Williams Christmas Special to a Passion Play. It was Baptists at their best. Jesus hanging on the cross while angels with 12 foot robes swung around him on cables. There was some good drama and some fine singers but I wish I could have heard one Christmas Carol. There were tour buses bringing church groups from all over the south. It reminded me of the Mormon pageant at Palmyra NY.

Georgia on my Mind

After our trip to the Aquarium in Atlanta we made a little side trip to a kayak store in Dawsonville, Ga. I told my navigator I thought it was about 10 miles out of the way, but it turned out to be about 70. I recently purchased a kayak on line and after trying it out a couple of times I decided to return it. Well you just don't stuff a kayak in the drop box at UPS. It came in a 18 foot long box that was taking up our last molecule of space in our micro-machine garage. So I packed it up and drove the long box to the trucking company in Asheville where the warehouse lady complimented me on my packing.

Now the kayak I wanted next is sold right near my house; in fact the North American distributor is based in Asheville. Of course I can't deal with these people because they won't deal. Since I am a man of principle, I can't pay full price for a kayak in December. So after wheeling and dealing with the the store outside of Atlanta I get $100 off the list price and a waiver of sales tax because I'm from out of state and that adds another $112.50 in savings. The owner says he has 2 of the models I want: one in yellow and one in orange. Now before I take the 174 mile trip back to his store I ask him to make sure he has the one I want. He tells me that his computer shows they are in his warehouse out back. I'm being anal so I ask him to check in the warehouse. He says he will send one of his staff to the warehouse to physically put his hands on it and give me a call back. The kid calls in a few hours and tells me there is a Capella 166 in red in the warehouse. I'm happy because the red looked great on a Capella 16 they had in the showroom. I just didn't want the Blue 166 they had in the showroom because I like to really stick out on the water so I'm not run over by jet skiers. After I hang up I get more anal and call right back to remind the kid I want the 166 and not the shorter 160. The kid assures me that it is a 166. The 160 is a nice boat but I'm too heavy for it; when I demo'd it Carol said it looked like a submarine with me being the conning tower.

We arrive at the store and there is my kayak all new and factory wrapped. So I ask the kid to unwrap it and lo and behold it's the smaller 160. Off he goes to get the owner who says he's going to check at his house to see if there is one there. Well, he comes back and by now he's getting psychotic because the only 166 he has is the blue one. He says he has the flu and can't think straight. So he's trying to think of what to do and I'm just looking at the ceiling smiling to myself because this stuff happens to me all the time. Well it winds up that he sells me his personal kayak, a Capella 166 in red with a compass for $500 off. (Now that I have a compass maybe I'll cross Lake Ontario.) Then he offers me 25% off on any accessories in the store for life. Then he went too far and tried to sell Carol another kayak. I told him nothing can separate her from her Dagger Savannah.

Of course we did have good Georgia and S.C. talk radio for the trip. The topic was whether "The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe" is a Christian movie. I guess the the movie makers are afraid of it being labeled a "Christian Movie" and Non-Christians not going to see it. The general consensus was that it isn't a religious film per-se'. Like Tolkien, his buddy C.S. Lewis used fantasy to portray moral truths. It was an interesting couple of hours of talk radio. If it is a religious film our church in Maryland would have tables set up in the theatre lobby to witness and answer questions like they did for Mel Gibson's "The Passion".

Atlanta Aquarium

Well it's week two of my vacation and I'm starting to talk to the Penguins.


They are the only ones left who haven't heard all my stories.

Atlanta is less than 4 hours away. The aquarium that just opened this week is the largest in the country. If you would like to see more pictures let me know and I'll send you my Easy-Share file. It is definitely a place to stop and spend a few hours at on your way to the mall.

Snow Alert

Western North Carolina is bracing for the worst snow storm ever. We may get an inch of the deadly stuff. It's only an inch; but its the worst inch ever! They are already announcing school closings and emergency plans. We expect FEMA to roll in tomorrow and President Bush to visit our ravaged region on Friday. I am including a pictture of our house and snow covered cars. If you look close you may see one of those deadly flakes. It only takes one to cause a deadly accident. Well before the snow gets too deep and they close the parkway I'm going to take one more motorcycle ride. Kaaabboooom!

Greenville South Carolina

We went to the BMW plant in Greenville South Carolina. That is where they make the BMW Roadster. They had a small museum
of the history of BMW. They left the part about their aircraft engines for the Nazi's.
The Bmw on
the right has the highest crash test rating of any passenger vehicle. That makes it a good pick for "Dents McGee". The little red car is BMW's transitional car. They slowly worked their way from motorcycles , aircraft and marine engines to cars. It would probably fit Aunt Annie like a glove. It also came with a camper for people who don't have friends or are not claustrophobic. Greenville had a nice downtown. I think Marianne would like it because they have a street named Coffee. It even has a green light to tell when to get a refil.


We later went to Bob Jones University. They have this huge museum of Religious Art. They wouldn't let me take any pictures (aren't you lucky). The young Hitler Youth guide wanted to lock my camera up. Well after I assured him Iwould keep it in my holster he let us in. I had a feeling though, that a team of Gestapo agents were following us from gallery to gallery. The art seemed like it would have been more at home in the Vatican instead of some fundamentalist small southern private school. We did not see one copy of a "Footprints" painting. Maybe I will donate one from the local swap meet. It was really an impressive collection. I thought they should have spend some of that $$$ on make up for the co-eds. It was long black dresses, straight hair, black suits and ties and crew cuts. It was kind of like going down to the local high school and finding the "King Tut Collection". The best part was the ride home where I found "Top Tier" Shell gas for $ 1.99/gal.

Too many stores

Well I have decided that there are just too many stores here in Asheville. I bought a starter set for my palm pilot about a week before it arrived at Staples in Hendersonville. Then after I got my palm pilot I downloaded 3 anesthesia references books to someone elses e-mail address. But that's another post entirely. So, this palm starter kit came with a gimicky pen/stylus combo, a case and 4 screen protectors. The screen protectors I couldn't get on without putting a big fingerprint on it, the case didn't have a snap or a removable belt clip and that stupid pen/stylus was just too geeky so I decided to return it all.


We set off to return it to the store in Asheville, but then Carol says we can return it to the store close to home, the Office Max. I said we didn't buy it there. So then Carol says maybe that's an Office Depot there, I'm not sure. So I say we have to go to Asheville to the mall with the Best Buy where we got it. Carol says there is a Best Buy in the new mall next to Office Depot. Then I think I don't remember getting it at Best Buy. By now we are driving around in circles so Carol says why don't we look at the BAG it came in. The bag says Staples. Yep, I bought it it at a different store in a different town then I remembered.

Now this would just be a usual day for us except for one thing. We spent an hour on Map-Quest that morning trying to coordinate this exchange with a trip to the Asheville Super Wal-Mart and a trip to Sam's Club. Now more planning went into this trip than the "Raid on Entebbe". Now we can go home and check for a Staples in Ashville on line and do the Map-Quest thing again. I decide to scrap the super gas saver plan that's going to pot and we are off in the other direction: 12 miles to Hendersonville, to the Staples we bought the dumb thing in and then go to that Super Wal-Mart ( which the locals refer to as the ALAMO) and then run back up to Asheville to return the shirt at Sam's Club. If we knew we were going to wind up in Hendersonville we would have skipped breakfast and went to the Denny's there.


Now the Sam's Club in Asheville is hidden behind a Holiday Inn. The only way we know to get to it is to go through their parking lot. They do have a sign. It's about the size of a cookie sheet and it's obscured by a tree. You can get a brief glimpse of what you think is the building through the trees from the highway. However, for some reason in Asheville The Super K-Mart is Sam's Club Blue and the Sam's Club is K-Mart brown. So we turn into Big K-Mart.

We are not easily discouraged by Asheville's lack of signs or Map-Quest's fantasy directions. That night we set out to a movie theatre in Asheville. The directions from Map Quest make it sound simple so we give ourselves 40 minutes to go 12 miles. Well the theatre isn't on the street they say. But after driving around the area where we think it should be I spot a sign; a marque the size of a crib sheet so I cut into that mall. However, the theatre isn't in that mall. It's about four malls back up on top of a mountain. You can bet there was not one more sign for the theatre besides the one on the street where the theatre wasn't supposed to be. The lack of signs in North Carolina must be part of some joke being played on all these Yankee transplants. I would get a GPS, except that the guys who put the satellite in orbit probably work for Map-Quest. There are just too many stores, too many malls and too few signs for us bumpkins from Garrett County.

More Pictures From The Parkway

I think this may have been the best weekend of the fall to take pictures. Maybe if we travel to a lower elevation next weekend there may still be some bright colors.

Babba-Gi Goes Digital

After a 2 month investigation I have purchased a Palm Pilot. I always laughed at people with their Day-Planners and post-it notes, but I now realize the hard-drive in my head is full. The main reason I need one is for work. My pocket size drug reference guide has gotten bigger every year to the point it won't fit in my pocket. When I put it in my clip-board along with my secret syringes of deadly drugs and my snacks it makes for one heavy clip board. Now I can carry a drug reference, a couple of anesthesia texts, the Bible, and all my appointments. Let's see: in January I have to go to my family doctor and the opthamologist. Besides those two things my dance card is empty. I didn't go nuts and get the PDA with Earth Link, digital camera,GPS, cell phone, plasma T.V. and juicer. It does have game capability and an MP-3 player so I can stay awake in these long boring surgeries. I always made fun of people who carried books around in the O.R.; they were rookies who didn't know how to give anesthesia. Now I'm one of them. 25 years ago when I started doing this the PDR (Physicians Drug Reference) was about 2 inches thick. Now the PDR is as fat as the Websters Dictionary @ the library and you get a hernia lifting it off the shelf. The whole PDR will only use 8.3 MB's of my 256 MB SD card.
So I am being dragged kicking and screaming into the information age. Babba will soon give up his old red-neck palm pilot (pictured above) which has served me so well for years.

Living on the Parkway

Fall is coming to North Carolina. The leaves are turning and there is a nip in the air. I actually had to use my windshield washer to get the frost off my windshield. It does warm up into the 70's by the afternoon. This weekend should find the leaves at their best colors, although this isn't suppose to be a great year for a vivid fall. Back in Oakland they already had their first taste of winter. They had about 10 inches of wet heavy snow that brought down so many trees that 1/3 of the county has no electricity. Hopefully if the weatherman is right tomorrow we will go kayaking. Now I did kayak in Maryland in November but it always required a wet suit.

We visited the Folk Art Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway. We found it after throwing the Map-Quest directions out the window. I think the people @ Map-Quest just make stuff up. This is the third time they got me completley lost. The Folk Art Center was great. They had a lot of art from from the local craftspeople. The prices for things were astronomical. There was no photography allowed in the galleries so I couldn't photograph any of the art work as I did at Notre-Dame. So we are enjoying the western North Carolina fall and glad we are not back on that mountain in western Maryland suffering through our first Nor-Easter without electricity.

Stafford Place part Deux.

Your stay would not be complete without an hour of meditation in the "Garden of the Gnomes". Feel free to wander by the babbling brook and recline beneath the tree and behold the rolling .01 acre of lush meadow.










For exercise there is the mega-stepper. This climb will really ensure a good cardiovascular workout. Or just take a liesurely stroll around the .3 mile circle and meet the folks. Remember Asheville Airport is just a mile away. Stafford Crossing is southern living at its best.

The Inn At Stafford Place

For all those who bailed out on the fall foilage Thanksgiving Bash: We at the Inn at Stafford want to invite you to any weekend of your choice. At Stafford every room has its own bathroom. We also offer 24 hour bootleg wireless hookups for all your business needs. As always a free continetal breakfast is included . All guests have the use of the finest automobiles .
We also offer 400 free pirated channels from our neighbor's dish network.

Demotivation

Well, I went back to the doctor's today and my blood pressure is down to 128/78. I guess those pills must be working. I could make a commercial for Diovan. I'm sooo glad she didn't have to add a diuretic; no pee breaks in anesthesia. So far I haven't felt any side effects from the B/P pill except this third eye I'm growing on my forehead. My cholesterol was 260 and my ldl/hdl ratio was 5, so that is average. I told my 30 year old 9 1/2 month pregnant doctor, "those statin drugs scare the poop out of me" so I'm on a program of exercise, low fat diet, red yeast and flax seed oil. I'm happy to be average so I don't want to risk my liver to try to get some number the Zocor makers concocted to go down 5 points. Next week it's back to the retina specialists. I hope he just takes a look. That retinal angiography is like looking at an arc welder for 20 minutes. Hopefully after this I can return to my peaceful non-doctored life as a Christian Scientist.

The Censor's numbers are even better than mine. All that time at the Life-Aquatic Center is paying off. I'm back at the grind. It seems that since I'm back all my patients are at death's door. Every day this weekI have had to do class IV patients. That's pretty sick. Class V are in the act of dying and class VI are organ donors. Good thing I have 7 weeks vacation. Our next road trip is the week after Thanksgiving. We are not sure where we are going yet. Our latest trip logged 2,500 miles. 1,200 miles was with a dog with her head in my lap. Things are back to normal; Daisy the Doberman is back with Steve, Marianne got her pet deposit back and the tempur-pedic dog bed is in the mail on it's way to Laura's. I'm starting to laugh about it now after going through my usual 7 stages: denial, bargaining, anger, depression, acceptance, laughing, and blogging.

Babba goes to Notre Dame

I visited Notre Dame this weekend and toured the campus. The mural on the left is painted on the tallest building; the 6 story library. It is referred to as "Touch-down Jesus". He didn't seem to help them win over USC this Saturday. The other pictures were taken in the Basilica of the Grotto. After touring the campus a couple of hours the smell of Papa-John's Pizza led me to a gender rally; that's me blending with the crowd. After 3 slices of pizza and some punch I decided to leave. After listening to the speakers talk about gender issues I felt my butt shrinking. So I went to the university bookstore and tried to buy a doctorate degree but the store lady told me it was a demo, and not for sale.